Concierge medicine providers headed to court

Dr. Edwin Anderson talks with patient Karla Loftus. Anderson’s practice is part of the growing trend of “concierge medicine.” Anderson’s goal is to give patients more of his time and work on preventive care.
(Photo:
Samuel M. Simpkins / File / The Tennessean
)

Concierge medicine provider SignatureMD has filed an antitrust lawsuit against a larger competitor, MDVIP, which is the dominant provider in the Nashville market.

According to the complaint, Florida-based MDVIP has violated federal and state competition laws in trying to aggressively maintain a monopoly status in several cities, including Nashville.

Part of the reason that competition is so fierce is because concierge medicine is still a niche health care market. The masses do not have access to concierge medicine, which is part of the appeal to those who do use the service.

MDVIP members, for example, pay $1,500 per year, in addition to their other health care costs, to see doctors who offer timely service and spend more time with each patients. There are currently six doctors in Nashville who are affiliated with MDVIP.

Nationally, SignatureMD has 64 doctors, compared with MDVIP’s 700 doctor nationwide. It was also later to market, having opened in 2007, seven years after MDVIP.

The companies involved in the dispute are known as “turn-key concierge medicine programs.”

Basically, they help individual doctors convert their practices to concierge medicine offices. Doctors can, of course, go concierge on their own, but the turn-key companies offer services such as marketing, staff training and patient recruitment.

The lawsuit specifically questions MDVIP’s practice of asking doctors to sign a non-compete agreement that prevents them from working for a competitor for two years.

When physicians sign the non-compete agreement, many don’t read that part of the fine print, according to SignatureMD CEO Matt Jacobson. “Often, people don’t seek the appropriate legal counsel, they get excited about the opportunity and they sign the agreement without doing the appropriate due diligence.”

“Look, everyone should be able to compete,” Jacobson said. “We should compete very aggressively and strongly, but fairly. MDVIP is entitled to get a proper return on the investment and risk of their practices, just like we’re entitled.”

MDVIP was not available for comment.

Concierge companies generally recruit a specific kind of doctor — one who is respected locally and has a certain number of clients who are 55 or older, the age when people require more primary care visits.